Cooking up a Kiddo

Every night, for a long time now, we have screen time with Kiddo.  When she was little, like two and a half or so, she loved the Red Hot Chili Peppers and we would find live footage and songs on YouTube and play those for her and bop along with her.  Cheap parent hack, if you need it.  Three songs.  Lots of energy, but not ramping her up to the point of ecstasy where she wouldn’t crash after a cooldown of brushing teeth and some goodnight kisses and questions.  Aside: Kids, at bedtime, seem to suddenly have approximately 4.7 Quartrillion questions to ask on all manner of subjects.  End Aside.  We moved a lost that a bit, with the set up on the living room and space we had, but it was always there; Sometimes laying in bed with her and the iPad, sometimes on the computer screen, sometimes bunched up in the living room around the TV there.  

On vacations and traveling, we will do the same, sitting or laying in bed together, Kiddo in the middle of J and myself, watching something on the computer screen.  Now, in Shanghai, with more space and a better layout, we’ve gotten back into the family habit of watching something with Kiddo before bed.  We’ve really gotten to share a lot with her.  There was some kid’s shows and things Kiddo picked or wanted, but she’s been willing to listen to our suggestions and thoughts so we’ve gotten to share Fraggle Rock with her, The Simpsons, and recently we’ve taken to watching Top Chef with her.  I’ve mentioned that before, her look when she lost the bet she’d made with me on the season I’d seen before.  However, she wants more.  And more.  And more.  We are now on our fourth season, having watched S6, then S8, then S17, and now we are back to S3.  We have S4 and S5 in the hopper for next and S16 to follow that.  Beyond that, the well (at least for now) is spent.  That, however, could change, so I cross my fingers and we enjoy.

Seeing two All-Star seasons and S6, a few of the faces have made multiple appearances and Kiddo has taken to having some favorites and some not favorites.  The thing is, she recognizes the chefs.  Even some of the guest chefs she knows, Nikki Nakayama, Jonathan Waxman, and Marcus Samuelson, knowing then on sight and expressing the want to try their food.  (Also Tom Colicchio, but she has no desire to eat there as she recognizes steakhouse is most times better, cheaper, and less stuffy cooked at home, but "if he wants to come here and cook I wouldn't say no.")  She knows them because of Chef’s Table or just because of YouTube videos and me or J watching them or seeing their foods.  She has expressed a desire to try some of the contestant's foods, if we are ever near their restaurants and "it would be really cool to meet them."  Even some of the locations they go, as S17 was in Los Angeles and Kiddo recognized The LA Colosseum, Guerrilla Tacos, GCM, and a few of the other locales they filmed at, so that was cool as well; seeing her make those connections and understanding that she’s been to some cool places and restaurants.  

Also, though, it’s opened her mind a bit and brought her some new skills and language.   We plan on an hour for the show, which is (without commercials) about 44-46 minutes.  We build in the other 15ish minutes for pausing to answer questions that she has— What is okra and why doesn’t chef Tom like it?  What does that word, toothsome, mean?  If Richard is making ice cream, why is steam coming out of the pot?

Okra is kind of a pod thing, like a pea and green bean met a jalapeno that wasn’t spicy and has a weird fuzzy vegetable baby (shows her picture) and Tom doesn’t like because I don’t know (he does go on to explain to the contestant why he doesn’t).  Toothsome means chewy, but not in a bad way; Like Crispy Chicken.  Not soft, it’s got some chew and feel to it.  You gotta bite it to get it.  Richard is using liquid nitrogen, and that steam is because its THAT cold, not hot.

We’ve started calling her our ‘Little Gail Simmons’ when she critiques dinner.  The other day, she commented on a stirfry I made serving it over wide noodles.  “It was good.  I liked the flavor, but the carrots were too small and cooked to long.  They got mushy and with the noodles it was mushy on mushy.  The beans had a nice snap, though, and I liked that they were toothsome and had good bite to them.”  Yeah, our 8 year old said that…. Worst part of it was that she was 100% correct and I thought the same damned thing.

She’s also more willing to try foods.  She doesn’t like cooked broccoli, only lightly steamed or raw.  I usually arifry it.  However, in the last few weeks, making broccoli, I will put a small piece or two on her plate and she will eat it and give feedback.  It’s a preference thing with that, but she’s willing to try and talk it out.  “It’s a little soft and I don’t like that it’s burnt.”  It’s not burnt, just crisped.  “Well, it tastes like bitter chocolate and coffee to me.”  Fair do!  She will, however, develop a palate this way and that she is willing to try speaks volumes.  Even steak.  She doesn’t like it.  Never really has.  The last time I made it, though, she asked to try one bite.  Both from J and my own, so she could see the difference.  Her first comment, “Ok, you Tom Colicchio’d me” meaning, like chef Tom and okra, I changed her mind on it.  Next, she broke down why my steak had “better flavor, like a richness and umami to it”, but noting J’s steak, “chews better and is more tender.”  She asked that next time we have steak, if instead of making her a hotdog or chicken or pork chop, if she could share some of J and my food so she could have some steak as well.  We’ve also been expanding her with bits of asparagus, arugula, and onion.  She’s coming around on them as well.  We should have Brussel sprouts available to us soon and making those, especially with a balsamic glaze, will be something for her to try.  I’m sure she’ll hate them at first, but we can’t wait for the feedback over multiple tries.

She’s also come to want to help in the kitchen a bit more, wanting to learn to cut and chop, helping with dinner.  So far it’s small things and pretty ‘slice off a finger’ proof stuff.  Trimming green beans, cutting a cuncumber into slices once I peel and halve it, or cutting an apple into slices once I core it for her.  Celery is next, as again, it’s small and pretty easy to manage.  Carrots and potatoes are larger and hard, leaving room for mishaps, and so we’ll keep those aside until confidence, coordination, and knife skills improve.

All this from watching a show with her, sharing with her, and listening to and then answering her questions.  It’s fun having a little person who wants to become a more rounded person in the house.  It’s fun to play with her, explore her worlds and imagination, doctoring her friends and all that, but it’s equally as cool to have her explore ours.  Not only the food and cutting and cooking, but the other shows.  Wanting to know how Fraggles work, how they move, how they are controlled, what some of the items in that world are— like a rotary phone or VCR.  Answering questions from the Simpsons and that world, who is George Bush and why is his moving to Springfield a big deal and other cultural references from the time (we own S4-11 and that was 92-2000ish) and even some of the objects, or what Blockbuster is/was.  She wants to explore our world.  To know J and I better, through these things.  

It’s a fun thing with her now, watching her transition from kid to girl.  She’s finding her fashion and style.  She’s becoming who she will be.  She’s less an empty vessel that we can fill and shape and more a person that has tastes, preferences, and self.  Don’t get me wrong, we’re not stopping the life lessons and guidance, but we have to do it less and less and can sit back and watch her make her choices and mistakes, see her achievements and successes, watch her learn so much by herself.  She’s exploring now, not the world, but herself, her family, her parents, and how she fits in this big world we live in.  She’s finding and, more importantly, making her place in it.

She’s also a goofball.  Balancing a toy on her nose.  Being 8.  Excelling at being 8, trust me on that.  There are still times when I think she’s going to learn how to fly because I’m going to fling her off the balcony.  FLING, and we’re done with that sass.  I kid, of course, but there are some days when I don’t think I’d mind.  Other times, though, I marvel at her 8ness.  The play.  The thoughts.  The questions.  The pure and unadulterated kidness of her as she bounces instead of walks, she frolics, or just randomly cartwheels because the spirit invokes her.  

I’d normally do a Let’s go here, but a few notes; 

First, I went to the little cafe that I normally go to write these and I saw the fire brigade lined up.  The cafe owner has good English and so I wondered at what it was all about.  Training for the local businesses (her’s included) on fire safety and prevention.  Monica (her Anglicized name) told me that, in China, when safety updates are given, a photo is taken and posted for 30 days at the local fire station “in recognition of the completed training to honor those who ensured the success of the businesses and those who trained them in prevention of fire.”  Honestly, that’s a pretty cool idea.

Second; it’s conference week her and I did Kiddo’s yesterday.  It’s student lead, so Kiddo was with me.  She has a very good sense of herself and her place, knowing her weaknesses and strengths and is able to talk about those.

“I’m good at writing and I’m a good note taker” (shows examples and her notes are great, even highlighted, which she is one of two in her class that review and highlight notes her teachers mentioned) 

“I need to work on multiplying 4s and 6s and be more careful with my signs to do the right thing like multiply or subtraction, but I’m good at rounding and word problems.” (Shows some math examples and that’s a spot on assessment of self)

However, in this, she had to gauge her progress in 11 categories from 1 to 5 stars.  She gave herself a few 5s, mostly 4s, and in two she gave herself 3 stars.  Her teacher and Assistant teacher both told me and her that the 3s are 4s and that two of her 4s should be 5s… “But Kiddo can be a bit of a perfectionist.”  They also said that she is a great group project worker, willing to listen and take in the ideas of others, but then taking lead and pulling all the ideas together without being bossy or acting like the leader.  

I gotta say, I’m proud of that and it’s a good skill, to lead without bullying, demanding, or barking at others.  She, as her teacher told me in an aside, “does her work, staying in the background, but always keeping things moving forward and knowing how to direct and keep everyone else on task or moving to the weak areas.”

Let’s go, Kiddo…. I can’t tell you how much you have grown and are growing.  It’s wonderful watching you and seeing you success and achieve, fail and fall yet still get up and try again and keep going.  You are a joy to watch.  You are fun to talk with and explore the world with.  You are, beyond anything else, our best thing and beyond what we could have hoped for in a child.  Brave, strong, resilient, kind, thoughtful, curious, and totally you.